Rome in the Rain

Today was another early morning as we set off for the Vatican before dawn to get in line to see the pope -- and it was raining. We lined up with a crowd and waited in the rain for about an hour until they started admitting people to St. Peter Square. Let's just say that the street vendors were doing a brisk business selling rain ponchos and umbrellas, and we were among their best customers. Although almost all of us had rain jackets and umbrellas, it was raining pretty hard at times, and the knee length ponchos were much appreciated.

Although we didn't get any special seats near the front, we were able to sit in a section where the pope-mobile would drive directly behind us. After quite a long wait, the giant TV monitors came on and the crowd started buzzing, and we knew something was about to happen. As we waited for the pope-mobile, people started standing on chairs and shoving into all the rows near the pope's route, including ours. One girl landed on Peggy and Tricia when the chair she was standing on collapsed. It was a zoo, but it was worth every raindrop and inconvenience when the pope-mobile stopped right in front of us and we got to see the pope's radiant and benevolent face. The pope kissed a baby and then looked around at us. Several of us swear he made eye contact. It was very, very special, and almost everyone got some really good photos.

Our tour guide said the pope was wearing makeup and that the pope-mobile had special lights to enhance photography. But, in the words of our tour guide, "Eh, so what-eh!" It's a great idea!

After seeing the pope, there were some long readings in at least 10 different languages, then a message from the pope in Italian, and then greetings from the pope to all the pilgrims in about 10 languages. As you can see, some of us had a bit of trouble focusing on the program. There was prayer with the pope and a blessing at the end.

After the papal audience, we had a quick lunch and then drove to St. John Lateran Basilica. This is one of the four papal churches in Rome that I mentioned yesterday. Here is a photo of the Holy Door that will be opened on December 8 and the high altar where only the pope is allowed to consecrate the eucharist (although our local guide told us that other bishops may use the altar for special celebrations with permission of the pope). St. John Lateran is the home church of the pope in his role as Bishop of Rome, whereas St. Peter's is his home church as Pope.

We then headed out for the fourth of the papal basilicas, St. Paul Outside the Wall -- and that's when we hit our own wall -- a wall of traffic that kept us completely gridlocked for over an hour.

Our tour guide called the catacombs where we were supposed to celebrate Mass after our visit to St. Paul's, but she found out that they closed at 5:00 PM. Father Nathan decided to skip St. Paul's, but in the end, we had to cancel Mass at the catacombs as well. Our local guide was embarrassed; he said he had never seen such a traffic nightmare, and Father Nathan decided to return to the hotel. Once traffic started moving, there were still many snarls, sirens, and flashing lights. Our bus driver had to turn wherever he could, and I think we might have gone the wrong way through some roundabouts and one-way streets, but we had a wild and interesting ride back to the hotel. I feel bad for my sister and some of the other pilgrims who really wanted to visit the catacombs, but there was absolutely nothing we could do about it. Everyone seemed to take it in stride, and we arrived back at the hotel as a group of happy pilgrims (looking forward to caffe, wine, and dinner).

P.S. I added the missing photos to yesterday's post.